Study suggests new approach may be needed for treating infectious blindness

Study suggests new approach may be needed for treating infectious blindness. Programmes may need to treat everyone who is living with someone infected with trachoma, say researchers %0A " - By Laura Gallagher - Tuesday 31 March 2009 Health programmes dealing with the infectious eye disease trachoma may need to treat everyone who is living with an infected person in order to bring the disease under control, suggests new research. Trachoma is the world's leading cause of infectious blindness. Although it has almost been eradicated in the developed world, the disease is still endemic in some developing countries. Globally, eight million people are visually impaired from the disease and a further 46 million people with early stage disease are in need of treatment to prevent blindness. The new research, published in on 30 March 2009, reveals that people are much more likely to become infected with trachoma as a result of living with an infected person than as a result of picking up the infection in the community. The researchers suggest that control programmes may need to treat everyone who lives in an infected household in order to eliminate trachoma from that household and bring the disease under control.